


(and i still haven't found) what i'm looking for

by queenvernage



Category: Super Sentai Series, 快盗戦隊ルパンレンジャー VS 警察戦隊パトレンジャー | Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daycare, Alternate Universe - Parents, Daycare Worker!Kairi, F/M, Family Drama, Kid Fic, Kinda, Love at First Sight, M/M, Mail Carrier!Keiichiro, Misunderstandings, Multi, aro/ace spectrum Keiichiro, platonic coparents keiichiro & tsukasa, sakuya and noel are literal actual children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 11:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24969217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenvernage/pseuds/queenvernage
Summary: Kairi's life is finally coming back together after his college and career plans have been shattered along with his left ankle. He has a job he likes looking after kids he surprisingly also likes, and coworkers he gets along with. He couldn't ask for anything more. Until he meets Keiichiro.Keiichiro's life is settling down, now that he and his family are getting used to life in the city. He loves being a mail carrier and a father, and couldn't think of a single thing his life is missing. That's when he meets Kairi.(Keiichiro and Kairi have a meetcute and then a series of misunderstandings.)
Relationships: Asaka Keiichiro & Hikawa Sakuya & Myoujin Tsukasa, Asaka Keiichirou & Myoujin Tsukasa, Asaka Keiichirou/Yano Kairi, Oohira Aya/Yoimachi Tooma, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. oh my life is changing every day in every possible way

Kairi didn’t have a lot going for him before he started working at Jurer Kindergarten. At 18 years old, he shattered his ankle on the basketball court, and with it, the dream of playing basketball on scholarship in university shattered, too.

At the time, he thought,  _ well that figures. _ It seemed to him that things in his life generally took turns for the worse, not better. Even when the ankle healed, his jump shot didn’t, and like magic, his scholarship fizzled into thin air, like rain on a hot sidewalk. 

He’d lost his parents at a young age, and they hadn’t exactly been wealthy. Everything they left to him and his older brother, Shouri, went to pay off the small house they lived in. There was only just barely enough left to live on while Shouri went to law school. The year Shouri graduated law school was the same year Kairi’s ankle broke, and his new job as a public defender wasn’t going to pay for either of their educations right away, so without the scholarship, Kairi sank into uselessness.

Until the day when he stumbled on Jurer Kindergarten, a daycare and after school care center across the street from a cafe he frequently pretended to be online job hunting in. The windows had paintings of bears and frogs, and most notably, a “NOW HIRING” sign.

Aya and Touma, the owners, hired him the second his background check and references cleared out of sheer desperation. It seemed like the demand for their services were stretching them thin and their only part-timer, a high school student named Umika, simply couldn’t work mornings because of her own classes.

When he first started, he didn’t know a thing about children. He’d never really spent time with one before, but after watching every “childcare training for beginners” video on YouTube, checking out a few books from the library (which, okay, he skimmed), and taking every pointer Aya and Touma were willing to drop, he learned enough to start to feel confident with all of the kids. 

(He wasn’t supposed to play favorites, but he would  _ die _ for Koh, who couldn’t sit still for nap time but always pumped up his friends with nonsensical encouragement. Sakuya and Noel, who are always up to something, he swears, could learn a thing or two from their friend.)

It’s only been about a year, but it made all the difference in the world to have a sense of purpose again. Now, he regularly laughs so hard his sides hurt, smiles when he passes children on the sidewalk and doesn’t resent getting out of bed (almost) every day. (Hey, sometimes the weekends are for just not getting out of bed, okay?)

Maybe one day, he tells himself, he’ll think about going back to school. But for now, this is all he needs. The life he’s living isn’t missing anything.

Until he meets Keiichiro.

* * *

Kairi’s day started like most others. It was a workday, so after silencing his first three phone alarms, he rolled out of bed, barely making it behind him, brushed his teeth and got dressed before grabbing the lunch Shouri left on the counter for him. (So he was 20 and his big brother still made his lunch the night before… It was a habit for both of them at this point.) After popping in his earbuds to listen to whatever new music he could find, he raced down to the bus stop to wait for the bus into town.

This is about the point when things stopped being normal.

Cue a gust of wind blowing approximately fifty envelopes into the street out of the box on the back of a mail carrier’s bike. Kairi, instincts sharpened from both his days handing out flyers for the day care center, and the time that Noel thought it was a good idea to pull all the construction paper off the shelf to make it ‘snow’, leapt into action.

He looked both ways for cars, because he at some point started practicing what he preaches, and then took off into the street in a feat of gymnastics skill he didn’t know he had, began collecting letters by the armfull, grabbing in all directions and hugging them close to his chest.

His music was still playing in his ear buds, so he didn’t hear the car coming, didn’t notice that from where he was on his knees in the street the driver couldn’t see him, didn’t have any sense of the situation at all until another body slammed into his, pushing the both of them out of the way to safety.

His first instinct was to curse, so he did.

“Dude, what the fuck?” He finally pulled his earbud out and began assessing his injuries. A minor scrape on the palm of his hand, a cut on his elbow, but nothing too tragic. The body beside him however was breathing heavily, probably from the adrenaline.

“That’s my line,” The mail carrier spat. He turned his head to look at Kairi, with disbelief and worry. Kairi just barely noticed that though, because all he could see was the most beautiful human being he’d ever seen in his life. This man’s face was all harsh angles, thick eyebrows and grumpiness, but the warmest brown eyes that melted any annoyance Kairi had previously been feeling.

“I told you not to go in the street! That car could have hit you! Who just does that? These letters are my responsibility, and if you get hurt chasing after them, then that’s my responsibility as well!”

“You can take responsibility for me if you want to.” Kairi’s big dumb mouth spoke, as usual before his big dumb brain could stop it. Mentally facepalming, he watched with some amusement as the mail carrier sputtered in response.

“That’s not what I meant,” the blush now on that serious face was the cutest, and Kairi decided he was going to get this man’s name and phone number if he actually had to get hit by a car to make it happen.

As he was resolving this however, the mail carrier stood up, brushed himself off and reached out a hand to help Kairi do the same. He took the man’s hand, feeling electricity run through his veins as he did. The two of them silently (and without earbuds) picked up the rest of the mail from the now cleared street and crossed back to where the mailman’s bike was.

“Thank you,” the carrier said. “I’m sorry for shouting, I really appreciate you helping. I just couldn’t stand it if someone got hurt because of me.”

“I mean, I should be the one thanking you,” Kairi gushed, repeating to himself to be cool. He wasn’t sure it was working. “You just saved my life, for real. It was pretty stupid of me to not turn off the music first. I’m Kairi, by the way.”

"Nice to meet you, Kairi, I’m Keiichiro Asaka.” He extended his hand and a warm smile, both of which Kairi accepted despite feeling his knees buckle slightly. When he pulled his hand away, he heard his bus pull up behind him.

“Shit, I’m going to be late if I miss this bus…” He took off for the stop once more, calling “I’ll see you around, Keii-chan!” over his shoulder as he ran. The warm chuckle and polite wave of this clearly high strung mailman was almost enough to make him reconsider, but he did have to go to work.

It wasn’t until his third replaying of the events in his head on the bus that he realized he hadn’t gotten Keiichiro’s phone number. He groaned thinking he might never see the man of his dreams again.

* * *

Keiichiro was a mail carrier because he liked it. Sure, at first it had just been the only public servant job opening available in the small town where he grew up, but when it came to his passion for public service, his motto was always ‘no job too small.’

After high school, he worked as a mail carrier for three years in that town, and it paid well enough to keep food on the table, even when freelancing gigs were few and far between for Tsukasa. When she’d finally gotten a full time job at a magazine in the city, he considered trying something else, but there was an opening in the city’s district post office, and everything fell into place so perfectly, that before he knew it, his fourth year of carrying mail was behind him, too.

It was fun, actually, to get to go around, inhaling fresh air and knowing he was helping keep the fabric of peoples’ lives run smoothly. He loved when he got to stop and chit-chat with the old ladies that took the mail at the community center or when stray cats wove between his legs as he tried to re-mount his bike. Between work and home, he was actually completely satisfied.

“Keiichiro,” Tsukasa had smiled on the day they moved into their new apartment, holding a giggly two-year-old on her hip, “I think this is going to be really good for us.”

“I think so, too,” he smiled back before pressing a quick kiss to the baby’s cheek.

It wasn’t until he met Kairi, that he even dreamt of wanting anything more.

He came home that day, after his long route, which had started with the wind and ended with a dog chasing him, but all he was still thinking about was the brave and selfless (and maybe also reckless) young man who’d gone out of his way to help him gather the letters that flew away that morning.

He settled into the couch, recalling their encounter, how Kairi had looked both ways before grabbing the letters, but hadn’t heard his warning about the car because of his headphones. It was clearly an instinctual response, he’d been so kind without even stopping to think about it. From his experience, kindness like that was very rare, and even rarer to come from someone with such handsome features. It was such a short interaction, but nevertheless… It had left an impact on him.

Young people these days are something else, he thought, without much regard for the fact that technically, at just shy of 25, he was still a young person.

“How was your day, Keiichiro?” Tsukasa asked, when she and the baby (who was now almost four), walked in holding hands. She always asked this after a hello, it was their tradition. Usually his response was something like,  _ fine  _ or  _ the usual _ , but today he surprised them both.

“Do you believe in love at first sight, Tsukasa?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: i'm gonna finish with or without you  
> also me: once i get this au out of my head
> 
> pls don't worry, i know that i have set it up in a shady way... that's suspense babey! but there is a perfectly innocent explanation for all of this and it's going somewhere wholesome i promise!
> 
> (maybe one day, i'll stop titling my fics with u2 lyrics but today is not that day)


	2. life is change, we move on, where you go i hope the summer goes along

As the weeks went by, Keiichiro found himself still thinking about the young man who had helped him gather the mail that blustery morning. (His brain reminded him unhelpfully that this person’s name was Kairi). Theirs had been a brief encounter, but it stuck with him.

He thought back to that day often as he set out on his morning route. Either the timing was always off, or Kairi had been there by chance, outside of his routine, on that day because there hadn’t been another sign of him at that bus stop. The air was starting to get colder now that the leaves were turning, and days went by, and just the same Kairi was gone.

_ Just as well, _ Keiichiro would think to himself when the daily disappointment hit. That’s not how the world works, he’d think, people don’t just waltz into your life with sudden kindness, soft maple-brown eyes, and a smile that begs to be protected. Stuff like that-- love at first sight stuff-- that was for movies, not real life, and certainly not Keiichiro’s real life.

“Love at first sight?” Tsukasa had laughed when he’d first mused about it weeks ago. She was hanging up their child’s backpack and parka. “Where’s this coming from?”

“Nowhere-- I just…” Keiichiro fumbled, wondering what explanation he could provide for his day that wouldn’t sound either creepy or delusional (or both...). “I, um, might have met someone today. It was probably nothing but, you know... I don’t know anything about that stuff anyway.”

“Keiichiro… Do you have a crush?” Tsukasa’s voice had a teasing lilt, as she nudged him down the couch and settled in next to him.

“Crush is strong word,” he muttered, suddenly feeling warm in his sweater and pulling at the collar. “We only met for a few minutes. He--”

“He?”

Keiichiro couldn’t bring himself to look at Tsukasa. Her question had been curious, not judgmental. It reminded him of those late nights they’d spent in high school, drinking smuggled cans of beer in the small yard between their houses, confessing to one another how little they each felt they knew about themselves. Suddenly, he felt like the vulnerable teenager Tsukasa still treated him like from time to time.

“Yeah… he.”

A loud crash in the next room and the sudden wailing had Keiichiro on his feet in an instant, rushing to their son’s bedroom, Tsukasa right behind him. Their son’s nightstand was on its side, while the child was visibly upset, but thankfully not hurt.

“I didn’t do it!” The child exclaimed, defensively, as Keiichiro scooped him into his lap, shushing and comforting, while inspecting more closely for any injuries. He thankfully didn’t find any.

“You’re not getting out of this that easily, Keiichiro.” Tsukasa sighed, leaning against the door frame. “I’m going to make dinner, but you and I are going to have a talk about this soon.”

“Can’t hear you, being an attentive parent.” Keiichiro smiled, wiping tears from their child’s face.

That talk, mercifully thought Keiichiro, hadn't happened yet.

* * *

It was one of those typical days for Kairi. A week or two had passed and he hadn’t run into that handsome mail carrier again (not that he looked for him high and low at the bus stop each morning, or squinted, just to check every time a tell-tale red box on the back of a motorbike passed him on the street… No, that would be excessive…). 

He couldn’t spend too much of his time thinking about it anymore though, because it was theatre week at the daycare and that meant all his energy went into coaching the toddlers and little kids on their singing while Aya and Umika spent the after school hours teaching the older kids lines and painting long strips of butcher paper with backgrounds. Somehow, it seemed that Kairi had also been made responsible for sewing all the costumes that Umika sketched out on construction paper. His fingertips were beginning to really regret ever owing Umika a favor. (Served him right, he supposed, for eating her pudding from the staff fridge...)

Even if Kairi could meet Keiichiro again, after a week like this, he worried he would be too tired to make himself look like a respectable romantic prospect anyway.  _ Just as well _ , Kairi thought, it wasn’t like he was the world’s best catch to begin with.

It was about mid-afternoon when Aya appeared from the big kid’s room where she’d been preparing their after school arts and crafts project. She clapped her hands to get the attention of the toddlers, they clapped back in response, ever well trained.

“Kids, Mr. Kairi told me you all know the Momotaros song. Can I hear you sing?”

“YES!” The kids chorused, as Aya began leading them in the first song. From the doorway to the toddlers’ room, Touma gestured for Kairi to come over. Distracted by the song, they children didn’t seem to notice.

Touma’s face was unreadable as always. Kairi knew this was an act to an extent. Touma was always cold with him and Umika, but he’d seen the way Touma and Aya were when they thought he wasn’t looking, and even though Touma didn’t work with the children as much (he was mostly answering their emails, tracking down payments from parents and ordering supplies), he couldn’t hide the warmth he put into making delicious and healthy snacks for the kids everyday. One of these days, Kairi swore he was going to break Touma’s walls down and get him to admit that Kairi was his favorite employee.

“What’s up, my dude?” Kairi joked, knowing how much it annoyed Touma to hear what he referred to as Kairi’s “youth speak,” and being his annoying self, played it up as much as he could. (Touma and Aya were each only a few years older than him, anyway, and could use a reminder of that fact every now and again, Kairi rationalized.)

“Need you to run an errand,” Touma deadpanned, not even acknowledging Kairi. He reached into his uniform apron pocket, pulled out a stack of letters and a ¥1000 note and pushed them into Kairi’s hand. “We’re out of stamps and have some bills to send out. The elementary class won’t get here for another half an hour, so Aya can watch your kids until then. Move fast.”

Touma turned on his heel and walked back to the reception desk without waiting for an answer. Kairi obligingly walked to the coat rack anyway.

“ _Oh, please, Kairi, my most favorite-ist employee, if you have a moment, would you mind--_ ” Kairi dramatized in a mocking tone as he pulled his own apron off and zipped his jacket, slipping on his shoes.

“Kairi,” Touma narrowed his eyes, warning in his voice. He was looking out of place and cold surrounded by cut out paper shapes, brightly colored alphabet charts and stuffed animals, but that was just the duality of his boss, Kairi supposed. “I still sign your paycheck, you know.”

“For now, anyway,” Kairi smiled and mock-saluted, the bells over the door ringing out to announce his exit.

“Save the receipt!” Touma’s final call just barely reached him as the door closed with a gentle click.

* * *

As Kairi walked down the street, his deep inhales of the crisp air somehow felt right and life affirming. There was something about a nice big breath of autumn air that gave Kairi the feeling that things were working out for him, whether or not they really were.

Even on a day like this, where Kairi had been given the unenviable task of breaking up the upteenth round of Sakuya and Noel’s continuing argument of who’s dad was better (Noel’s dad had given him a toy train, Sakuya’s had let ordered them pizza for dinner the night before), in the cool fall air, Kairi felt like it was just another charming and lovely part of his charming and lovely life. He was satisfied and content, and as much as he would try and fail to make Touma feel bad for sending him on errands like this, he was happy to be trusted to do these small but important things. It gave him the comforting feeling that he was living a small but important life.

As he walked into the lobby of the post office, he wasn’t even annoyed by the line. He knew he was on the clock to get back before the big kids got out of school, but he also knew Umika would be clocking in before too long. The line went slowly, but eventually, Kairi paid for the stamps, sent the bills along, shoving the extra stamps for next time and the receipt in his jacket pocket, with about 10 minutes left to make the short walk back to the daycare center.

He didn’t expect that a gust of wind would catch the post office door he was opening, slamming it squarely into the person trying to open the opposite door at that very moment, sending them falling back onto the sidewalk.

“Hey!” The person exclaimed, somewhat reflexively it seemed, as Kairi rushed to their side to help. He reached out a hand, but pulled back in surprise when he realized the face was familiar.

“Hey, you’re that--” Keiichiro began at the same time that Kairi was excitedly announcing, “I know you!”

They laughed at their overlapping words, Kairi re-extending his hand to actually help Keiichiro back to his feet before they both stepped out of the way of the post office doors.

“Keiichan, right?” Kairi surprised himself at the casual tone he was somehow able to muster. (He supposed that could be a result of all the times he’d played out this scenario in the shower or the moments before sleep in the last two weeks.)

“Yeah, and you’re Kairi.” Kairi couldn’t help but be a little flattered by the smile and the fact that his name wasn’t a question. Keiichiro had remembered.

“Do you work here?” He asked, gesturing over his shoulder to the post office, realizing a beat too late that… obviously.

Keiichiro didn’t seem to think he was stupid for asking though, and just nodded politely. “Yeah, do you?”

“Do I work here?” Kairi grinned at the silly question.

“Uh, I meant, around here! Here, meaning, this part of town, that is-- Obviously, I would know if we were coworkers!” Keiichiro was flustered, and it was cute.

The phone in Kairi’s pocket vibrated, he knew without checking that it was Touma chiding him about the time.

“Yeah, actually, speaking of…” Kairi pointed in the general direction of Jurer Kindergarten. “I should be getting back. Someone else is watching my kids right now.”

“Oh, you’re a--” Keiichiro’s brows came together, confused. Kairi smiled at the realization. People always seemed surprised that he worked with children. He was well aware that he didn’t fit the stereotype of a daycare worker, “I’m sorry, it’s just you seem kind of young to be a father?”

“A what?” Kairi sputtered. That was actually a first. “You sure do jump to interesting conclusions, Keiichan…”

As Keiichiro fumbled his words around an apology, muttering something about assumptions, Kairi fished in his pocket for a scrap of paper and a pen, before pulling it out and jotting his phone number quickly and passing it to Keiichiro.

“I’m just giving you a hard time Keiichan, I work at a daycare. Don’t worry, I’m single as can be, and that’s my phone number so whenever you want to ask me out feel free! Gotta run!”

As Kairi took off at a jog back towards work, he realized that the paper he’d written his phone number on was the receipt Touma had asked for, but in that autumn air, he couldn’t bring himself to care about the scolding he was in for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing is harrrrrrrrrd... but sometimes you just gotta push through bc you miss lupat and you can't do anything else about it...

**Author's Note:**

> me: i'm gonna finish with or without you  
> also me: once i get this au out of my head
> 
> pls don't worry, i know that i have set it up in a shady way... that's suspense babey! but there is a perfectly innocent explanation for all of this and it's going somewhere wholesome i promise!
> 
> (maybe one day, i'll stop titling my fics with u2 lyrics but today is not that day)


End file.
